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Eight years ago, Brunswick’s Will Geoghegan and Scarborough’s Nate Hathaway staged a memorable battle for the Class A title, producing the two fastest times for a state championship at Twin Brook Recreation Area. Geoghegan won in 15 minutes, 43.37 seconds. Hathaway finished in 15:46.09. Only one other runner in three succeeding state meets at Twin Brook broke 16 minutes, Madison’s Matt McClintock (15:52) in 2011.

On a cool Saturday afternoon, with a lead of more than a minute, Laverdiere sprinted down a final grassy slope with an eye on the record.

“I saw the clock and I was like, ‘Oh, man, it’s really close,’ ” Laverdiere said. “So I went for it.”

His time was 15:43.89. He got Hathaway but missed Geoghegan by half a second.

“He’s in a class all by himself,” Yarmouth Coach John Rogers said of Laverdiere. “It’ll be interesting to see what he does at New Englands.”

Runners with the top 25 times, regardless of class, qualified for the New England Meet next month in Belfast. Also qualifying were the three team champions – Falmouth in A, Lincoln Academy in B and Orono in C – as well as three at-large teams, all from Class A: Scarborough, Greely and Deering.

Only in Class A was the team competition particularly close. Scarborough, a distant fourth at the South meet last weekend, surprised many with a second-place showing, 95 points to Falmouth’s 73. Greely was third at 105.

Junior John Auer (seventh) and senior Conner Piers (ninth) led the way for Falmouth with seniors Alex Kinley (14th) and Charlie Henning (18th) and junior Douglas Cooke (29th) completing the scoring.

“You can’t point to one guy,” Falmouth Coach Jorma Kurry said. “It was a total team effort.”

Lisandro Berry-Gaviria of Mt. Ararat was the only Northern runner to win a state title. He finished in 16:31.71 to beat runner-up Wyatt Lord of Hampden by four seconds and Deering senior Yahya Nure by six.

“There’s a lot more hills,” said Berry-Gaviria, a sophomore who had never raced at Twin Brook and only ran it a few times over the summer. “The terrain is very varied, too. At points you’re running on hard-packed gravel and at other times you’re running on grass.”

Lincoln ran away with Class B by packing five runners among the top 21 for a score of 56. Junior Sam Russ, sophomore Jarrett Gulden and senior David Barnum went 4-6-11.

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